Galaxy
NGC 2997 (NGC2997)
In Antlia (Ant) • Magnitude 9.4 • 10 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with NGC 2997 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Beautiful face-on spiral in Antlia.
NGC 2997 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 2997 |
| Type | Galaxy |
| Constellation | Antlia (Ant) |
| Right ascension | 09h 45m 39s |
| Declination | -31° 11' 28" |
| Apparent magnitude | 9.40 |
| Surface brightness | 23.4 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 10.3 × 6.2 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 14° |
| Best imaging months | Feb, Mar, Apr, May |
How to image NGC 2997
NGC 2997 sits in the constellation Antlia at right ascension 09h 45m 39s and declination -31° 11' 28". To frame and integrate it well, AstroPlanner will compute the optimal moonless window for tonight from your location, the field-of-view fit against your sensor and focal length, the suggested total integration time given your aperture and sky Bortle class, and a cloud-aware schedule that drops it from the plan if your nearest cloud forecast spike overlaps the best altitude window. As a galaxy, NGC 2997 needs the darkest skies you can find: surface brightness, not just apparent magnitude, drives whether it will lift out of the gradient.